The Seventh Angel Poured Out His Bowl

and God said, "It is Done!"

16: 17-21

DIG: When does this earthquake
take place? How does it compare to other earthquakes in human history? What
purpose will it serve?

REFLECT: Do you believe that Jesus is coming back
again? How has that belief changed the conduct of your life? Has it changed your
urgency about winning the lost to Yeshua? He will come in the twinkling of an eye.
When He comes, you
do not want to have missed the opportunity to talk to a friend, or a loved one
about Yeshua Messiah.
What we do, we do today. Yes?

The sixth and seventh bowl judgments are not in chronological order. They are
like two bookends that describe the first and last stages of the Campaign of
Armageddon. To see a summary of that Campaign, and where this tremendous
earthquake fits into that context (see Ex -
The Eight Stage Campaign of Armageddon:Stage Eight - The Victory Ascent Upon
the Mount of Olives).

As God preserved the Hebrews during the ten plagues on Egypt, He will again
preserve a remnant from the city of Jerusalem during the second half of the
Great Tribulation. How could the Jews survive there for 42 months without taking
the mark of the beast? Without the ability to buy or sell? Just as the ravens
brought Elijah bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening
(First Kings 17:6), there will be sheep
Gentiles who come to the aide of the Jews and provide help to God’s
chosen people any way that they can. They will be the sheep Gentiles rewarded
during the Seventy-Five Day Interval (see Fc – The
Sheep and the Goats).

The Word of God tells us that after the third stage of the Campaign of
Armageddon, and the fall of Jerusalem by the antichrist and his hordes, half of
the Jews will go into exile, but the rest of them will not be taken from the
City. But before they can be executed, the antichrist, will turn to attack
Bozrah, the fourth stage. As the believing remnant there acknowledges Christ as
their Messiah and pleads for Him to return, there will be the national
regeneration of Isra'el, the fifth stage.

As the kingdoms of the world close in around the believing remnant in Bozrah
(see my commentary on Isaiah Is - The Second Coming of Jesus Christ
to Bozrah), the seventh angel will pour out his bowl into the air. Immediately
a loud voice from the throne room out of the heavenly Temple says:
It is done(16:17)! This is the second time we will hear
Jesus say these words. When He
hung upon the cross, He spoke the same exact words when He said:
It is finished
(see my commentary on The Life of Christ Lv –
Jesus’ Second Three Hours on the Cross: The Wrath of God). It is one Greek word:
Tetelestai, and it actually
means paid in full. The perfect tense of the verb describes a completed
action with ongoing results. With His solemn declaration,
Jesus announces the climax of
the final Day of ADONAI that will spread doom over the
entire globe. God’s judgment of Christ on the cross offered salvation for repentant
sinners; the judgment of the seventh bowl brings doom to unrepentant sinners.375

Three times before John had heard flashes of lightening, rumblings, peals of
thunder (4:5, 8:5 and 11:19) in heaven, just before the seal judgments, the
trumpet judgments and the bowl judgments respectively. The seal and trumpet
judgments had also ended with an earthquake. But the bowl judgments will be
terminated with this unusually severe earthquake. In fact, it will be so
tremendous that no earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on
the earth (16:18). One of the major fault lines in the world, the African Rife
system, runs from the heart of Africa, directly under the Dead Sea, up through
the Jordan river valley, the Sea of Galilee and northward through Lebanon.
Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives lies just 15 miles west of the
Dead Sea. When the victorious feet of Jesusstand on the Mount of Olives there will be the largest
earthquake in thehistory of the world. The great city of
Jerusalem will split into three parts, one of those parts will be the
Mount of Olives, and all the proud cities of the
Gentile nations will collapse (16:19a). Of all the great
cities of the world, only Jerusalem will be spared, but it will be
changed significantly as we shall see.

When the victorious Messiah returns to Jerusalem and
His feet stand on the Mount
of Olives, it will split it from the east to the west, forming a great valley(Zechariah 14:4). But Zechariah goes on to record another intriguing prophecy:
On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea
and half to the western sea, in summer and winter (Zechariah 14:8). Even though
MountZion will be left unscathed by the severe earthquake, a great artesian
spring will open up in the mountain, generating a large river (see my commentary
on Isaiah Ge – Your Eyes
Will See the King in His Beauty). It will evidently be
the River of Life(22:1-6) that will flow from the millennial Temple (Ezekiel
47), with half flowing down from Jerusalem to the western sea (or the
Mediterranean Sea) and half flowing down to the eastern sea (or the Dead Sea).
Thus, while the tremendous earthquake will destroy other cities, God’s holy
City
will be made more beautiful than ever.376 And because the newly formed
valley
will provide a way of escape, the believing Jews of Jerusalem will be rescued
following the deliverance of the Jews at Bozrah. However, the fate of Babylon
will be diametrically different.

God remembered Babylon the Great, the capitol of the beast’s empire,
and gave
her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of His wrath (16:19b). We must
remember that if ADONAI did not punish wickedness, there would be no such thing as
holiness. This will lead to the final destruction of Babylon, detailed in
Chapter 18:1-24.

The whole surface of the earth will be changed because of
the tremendous
earthquake. Every island will sink below the water and the mountains
will be leveled (16:20). The prophet Isaiah said: The earth will be
broken up, split
asunder and thoroughly shaken. It will reel like a drunkard, and will sway like
a hut in the wind (Isaiah 24:19-20a). The net result of this will be that the
trauma to the earth as a result of the Flood (Genesis 7) will be rectified with the Second
Coming of Yeshua Messiah, and the beautiful pre-Flood world will be revived
in the millennium.377

Those who somehow escaped the devastation of the earthquake will face another
catastrophe, unparalleled in all of human history. From the sky, huge hailstones
of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of
the plague of hail because the plague was so terrible (16:21).
The seventh plague in Egypt during the days of Moses was hail mixed with fire
(Exodus 9:18-25). It was directed against Nut, the female goddess of the sky. It
was from her domain that plague came. In addition, Shu, the Egyptian supporter
of the heavens who held up the sky and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, seemed
not to hear. Giant hail killed the Egyptian cattle in the fields and smashed
down all their trees. This plague in the end times, however, will be much worse.
The hailstones will weigh about a hundred pounds each and will hammer the earth
with a vengeance. The heaviest hailstones ever recorded weighed about two
pounds, but those gigantic chunks of ice will be fifty times heavier!378 So just
as the gods of Egypt were unable to stop the plague of hail mixed with fire, so
the antichrist will be unable to stop the seventh bowl of judgment.

What effect will this have on mankind? Will people finally repent of
their sins
and avoid hell? No. For the third time in this chapter we read that they cursed
God. This time it was on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was
so terrible (16:21). It will be too late for them because
theirhearts will be
hardened (Luke 16:31). They will have sold their soul to Satan and will
be totally committed to the antichrist and his worldwide system of rebellion. As
children of wrath, it will be as if they are begging to go to hell to be with
their master rather than repenting and being with the Lamb. Today, if you
hear His voice, do not harden your hearts (Hebrews 4:7).